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This film's working titles were the The Legion of Horror and Hooded Legion. The Variety review commented that this was the first picture to deal with the unmasking of the Detroit Black Legion, which had occurred in May 1935 in Michigan, where Charles Poole, a WPA worker, was killed, and Dayton Dean, a Legion executioner, turned state's evidence at the trial. In 1937, Warner Bros. produced a film titled Black Legion that was also based on the Detroit case. A January 17, 1937 New York Times article about the Warner Bros. film states that the Legion's "stock in trade is blatant 'Americanism' coupled with persecution of those differing in economics and racial viewpoints....a sort of 'America for Americans' jehad in which native-born labor was to carry the banner-and take the risks." Variety called Legion of Terror "an indictment of crackpot politico-fraternal organizations." This film marked Crawford Weaver's film debut.